Snow Zone

Colorado National Monument 'listening' process could create U.S. model

This is Rim Rock Drive, the 23-mile-long road was built in the 1950s by the Civilian Conservation Corp. (THE DENVER POST | Hyoung Chang)

GRAND JUNCTION — For the past two years, pleas to have a stage of the USA Pro Challenge bicycle race wind over the Colorado National Monument have met with firm "nos." Now, the National Park Service is saying, "let's talk."

The Park Service has agreed to gather local input on what events and activities should be allowed in a national monument that is viewed as the recreational backyard of Grand Junction and Fruita and is a generator of more than $21 million in annual revenues for the nearby communities.

It will be the first time anywhere in the country the park service has undertaken such a public-input process. The process will examine many uses of the park, from paid guiding services to sporting events, not just the proposed Pro Challenge race. The outcome could affect how other parks and monuments around the country deal with special events and uses.

"I applaud them for taking the step to put this process in place," said John Hopkins, a member of a Grand Junction organizing committee that has been pushing the park service to allow a stage of the Pro Challenge race in the monument.

Colorado National Monument Superintendent Lisa Eckert said she came up with the idea for the public-input process even before she took over at the park last spring and had been studying some of the complex use issues there, including the push for the Pro Challenge.

"I'm a big fan of collaboration," Eckert said.

Advertisement

The 23 scenic miles of the Monument's Rim Rock Drive that are the heart of the cycling-race controversy, draw more than 15,000 recreational cyclists annually — a fact that doesn't sit well with all motorized users. Before it became so popular with cyclists, Rim Rock Drive was the iconic "Tour of the Moon" stage of the Coors Classic International Bike Race in the 1980s.

The Grand Junction organizing committee knows it is at a disadvantage without being able to offer the monument as part of the modern race route. The committee pulled out of the stage bids in 2011, the first year of the Pro Challenge, after it was unable to secure permission to include the monument. For this year's race, the committee proposed alternate routes, but Grand Junction wasn't chosen.

The park service public-input sessions that will be overseen by a third-party facilitator haven't yet been scheduled and won't happen in time for the committee's proposal for a 2013 stage. The deadline for proposals is Friday.

Hopkins said the committee plans to submit a proposal that will include the wine country around Palisade as well as options on the Grand Mesa and along the base of the monument. Hopkins said the proposal will be submitted with the understanding that the monument could be included later if the public input process changes park officials' minds.

"If we have the monument that could really strengthen our proposal," Hopkins said.

The plan the park service will develop from public input is being called the Visitor Activity and Commercial Services Plan. Eckert said, in addition to incorporating many voices into the decision-making process, it will also make that process more transparent. She said officials at other parks and monuments around the country have told her they will be watching the Colorado National Monument process for guidance in their own use decisions.

Local duo joining overseas exhibition excursionFilippo Swartz went to Italy, where his mother was born and he spent the first year or so of his life, every summer until he had to stick around to be a part of summer football activities for the Longmont High School team. Full Story

MacIntyre says the completed project will be best in Pac-12There were bulldozers, hard hats, mud, concrete trucks, blueprints, mud, cranes, lots of noise and, uh, mud, during the last recruiting cycle when Colorado football coach Mike MacIntyre brought recruits to campus. Full Story

Most people don't play guitar like Grayson Erhard does. That's because most people can't play guitar like he does. The guitarist for Fort Collins' Aspen Hourglass often uses a difficult two-hands-on-the-fretboard technique that Eddie Van Halen first popularized but which players such as Erhard have developed beyond pop-rock vulgarity.
Full Story